Happy Halloween! To celebrate our favorite holiday of the year we’ve partnered with our friends in Darling Waste to premiere the band’s first new song in nearly two years. “I Am The Villain” is a dark, driving rock song with a soaring chorus that launches the band’s signature sound into new territory, and we think it’s the perfect song to share right before you head out for a night of ghoulish fun.

“I Am The Villain” is not a one-off effort. Darling Waste are currently preparing a new album, and this track is just a taste of what they have in store for the future. You can read an excerpt from a message vocalist Lance Waste posted to Facebook regarding the song and its history below, followed by the track premiere:

As always, I wanted to keep the band alive so I started plugging in people. Friends, strangers from craigslist, people in other bands filling in. We started playing some pretty awful hometown shows, sounding more like a Darling Waste cover band than the real deal.

Then Donnie Talbott came back. Donnie was our original drummer and was with us for tons of diy touring. Then my friend Anthony Powers joined, giving us the punk rock bass and backing vocals we’d lost when Justin left. I recruited my friend Jesea Lee from One Days Notice to play guitar. He gives me the same energy and playing style as Daniel. The band sounds good again and we are on the same musical wavelength. But most of all, we are friends. We get along. We hang out. And it’s fun again. And for those of you who have seen us lately, it shows.
I don’t know when we are supposed to announce the details on the new album so I won’t. But there is a new album. And it’s on the way. Soon. It’s a full length and it’s rock music again. I’m excited to show you.

The single is done. I wrote it about two years ago. It’s one of the songs I always knew would make the album. I wrote it about a girl who I was kind of sort of dating. We told everyone we weren’t dating but it sure felt like a break up when it ended. Anyway the song is pretty mean. I played it for her and she thinks I’m a dick and I probably am. But she’s happy now, I’m happy now and we are still good friends. So it’s all good.

Ventsmag review of “I AM BORN“

Already making waves and touring the world, Darling Waste the New York quartet are taking their indie pop global. It’s not hard to see why they are so liked, with emotional lyrics, and gorgeous layered pianos and guitars, that millions of lighters go up with ease, the band just knows how to pluck the heartstrings just right. If you don’t believe me, take a listen to “The Insignificants” a song that in lesser hands would be a sappy mess, but instead Darling Waste makes it grow from a gently plucked lullaby to a heavenly choir and piano crescendo, that will make you hold your loved ones, or want to search for some deeper meaning in the stars. Pick up this album and enjoy the ride. Smiling, crying and hope included.
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Ventsmag interview with Darling Waste

What’s the meaning behind the name Darling Waste? How did you guys come up with that name?
Lance: The name Darling Waste is pretty personal really. It just stems from growing up with high expectations and not living up to your full potential.

How you guys started as a band?
Lance: I started the band in high school as a solo project. I just was writing some songs and had some songs left over from a previous band I was in. I put the first record out and got a great response, MTV started playing one of our songs and some radio stations picked it up as well. So I left school and formed the band.

What’s the message you guys want to transmit with your music?
Lance: Well, I don’t sit down and think about the messages really. My songs are really personal and they are all true stories about my life. So I hope people can find what they need in the songs and it brings them comfort or at least a feeling that they are not alone with these sort of thoughts and feelings.

What’s your method at the time of writing a song?
Lance: It’s really organic and stream of consciousness. I will sometime just be singing a melody line in my head or have lyrics for one line or something. So I just sit down with my piano or my acoustic and I start figuring out chords that would go under what I am singing and the songs just kind of come. Most of our songs are written in an hour or two, all in one sitting.

What’s the meaning of your latest album?
Lance: We have a brand new EP coming out this summer with Yellow Fish Music Group in England called “Good and Bad Angels”. It basically explores the pitfalls of relationships and connections people make and break; just kind of how love is a double edged sword. And also how people influence you and pull you in different directions and affect your life.

What are your influences musically?
Lance: My influences range from hip hop to folk to everything in between. I was just listening to the rapper Freeway’s new mixtape today. But as far as influences I would say The Weakerthans, Bright Eyes, Dashboard Confessional, Bat for Lashes, Death Cab for Cutie and Frightened Rabbit just to name a few.

What do you guys do when you are not touring?
Lance: We tour for about six months out of the year. So we basically live in a van or bus together all year. So when we are off touring we try to stay far away from each other! We all go decompress and see your families and friends for a while. Then we get together, work on new songs, record some, and then go back out on the road. I also own a boutique artist management and pr firm called The FOCOTheory Agency that keeps me pretty busy during our down time.

What plans do you guys have for the future?
Lance: As far as immediate future we are going to be releasing “Good and Bad Angels” through Yellowfish Music Group in late summer. We will head out on a U.S. tour for it, and then we are heading to England in September. We are following that up with tours of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Italy and hopefully Japan throughout the rest of 2010 and early 2011.

With which bands you guys would love to play?
Lance: We have already played with a bunch of our favorite bands like Blink 182, Panic at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, Dashboard Confessional, Secondhand Serenade,Kill Hannah, Bayside, Chiodos, Aiden and a ton more! But I’d love to play with The Weakerthans, Counting Crows, Brand New, Thrice or bands like that.

If your van stopped in the middle of nowhere and the civilization is 80 miles away, who would you guys send to look for help? And while waiting there’s no food and the only way of feeding yourself is eating each other; which would you eat first?
Lance: It would either be me or Daniel going out for help. We would probably all go together honestly…but I would say Daniel would go out for help. He’s super responsible and a take charge kind of guy. He would get the job done. And I would have to eat Mikey just because he is small and I could overpower him! It’s natural order; although he wouldn’t be very filling. Not a big meal at all.

Have any of you guys fallen from a stage before?
Lance- I don’t think I have ever straight fallen off of a stage. I jumped off a stage into the crowd once in an amphitheater at a festival. The stage was about eight feet high. When I tried to climb back up I realized that the front of the stage was just a tarp with nothing behind it so there was no way to put my foot on it to boost myself back up. So I ended up having to go all the way around the speakers and security through backstage and back out on stage. It took forever! I also have broken my foot and lost a couple of teeth on stage.

I know bands like to prank each other, have you guys been or took part of a prank while on tour? And if yes, which was the funnies?
Lance- On the last night of our last European tour we rushed the stage and wrapped the guys in Our Innocence Lost in toilet paper. They they came out during our set in their underwear.

Which place you guys would love to play or visit?
Lance- We are all itching to go to Japan really badly I think. I would like to go to the south of France or Milan soon.

Are you guys OK as the band is going now?
Lance- Yeah we are very happy! We love the music and hanging out with each other. We love our fans and love traveling and meeting new people. It really is a great time for our band and we are just trying to enjoy it and play shows and make connections with people. We have friends all over the world now so we just try to tour as much as possible!

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GIGHIVE.COM BUZZ BY INTERVIEW APRIL 2nd 2010

TheBuzz-By: Lance Waste of Darling Waste

This week Lance Waste, the lead singer/guitarist of the band Darling Waste answered our Buzz-By questions.

Be sure to check out Darling Waste’s new LP with Yellowfish Records being released as a British import in mid-April.

LW: Hmmm, I don’t get to go out too much. I think it was The Lovely Bones. I saw Avatar in 3D!

KH: What song is stuck in your head right now?

LW: Well, actually we are on our record label’s boat off the southern coast of England at the moment and they are blaring an old American hi-fi album for some reason! So that’s what’s in my head right now.

KH: If you could be part of any band or group, what would it be? Past or present.